“Holy moly”.
The commentators at Sydney Dragway nicely summed up the quarter-mile run of the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, which is now officially the fastest showroom-spec car to take on the 400-metre stretch of sticky bitumen Down Under.
They knew it would be quick, but nobody – not even Porsche – thought it would be quite as quick as it was.
Our challenge was simple: take the new pinnacle of Porsche’s electric car lineup to the drag strip to see if we could get it banned for going too quick.
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Yes, even in motorsport you can break the speed limit!
Spoiler alert: we succeeded.
But it took a few days, almost a dozen runs down the quarter-mile strip, and an understanding of what makes an EV tick (or, at least, what best makes the electrons flow).
Yep, the journey to 252km/h in a little over nine seconds was slightly more involved than dialling up launch control and hanging on for an 815kW fast blast.
Crunching the numbers
As with any form of motorsport there are rules and regulations, and one of the big ones with drag racing – ironically – revolves around speed.
This drag strip is designed for cars that can travel upwards of 500km/h – in just five seconds. Think about that. Zero to 500km/h in five seconds.
To do that you need all sorts of safety gear, including a roll cage and a parachute.
For cars without that gear there are tougher limits.
We wanted to attack the rules around the speeds cars can travel on an Aussie drag strip – and also have a crack at unofficial drag racing record for an unmodified production car in Australia.
Wade through the rules and regs and you learn that any car that exceeds 150mph (241.4km/h) needs a parachute to help it stop.
Now keep in mind that most things running down here don’t have anything like the brakes, tyres and dynamic ability of a Porsche.
A lot of them are designed to go fast in a straight line – very fast.
But they’re often not great at stopping and turning.
This Taycan is almost the opposite. It’s predominantly engineered for cornering excellence and to be able to lap a track in ferocious style.
The Taycan Turbo GT also happens to be ludicrously quick in a straight line.
But wait… haven’t we seen this before?
Of course, this isn’t the first time a Porsche has pushed Aussie drag racing rules to their limits. Back in 2011, Motor Magazine ran a similar experiment with a 911 Turbo S – and it too ended up being banned.
They took what then set a new performance benchmark to the drags to try to get it banned – and also succeeded.
But the goalposts were significantly wider back then.
Production cars only had to do better than 11.0 seconds or exceed 140mph (225.3km/h) in order to get banned.
The 911 Turbo S nailed it, covering the distance in 10.874 seconds at 209.50km/h.
At the time, Motor’s Shaun Cleary noted that it was the fastest acceleration numbers in the magazine’s history.
And, yes, it was fast, although as CarExpert’s own drag race series shows, things have moved on.
On a remote Western Australian runway Paul Maric and Alborz Fallah have run some seriously quick times in some seriously slick machinery.
The Lamborghini Revuelto recently clocked a 10.18-second run at 228.53km/h. The combination of a V12 engine and three electric motors adds up to serious pace.
Electrons only
For us, there’s no petrol, with the Turbo GT – something of a performance car bargain at $419,000 plus on-road costs – instead employing a relatively simple two-motor EV powertrain.
Okay, that’s simplifying things slightly.
They’re potent electric motors and there’s some tricky stuff going on in there with electrons. The pulse inverter that supplies electricity to the rear motor gets a new silicon carbide semiconductor material. That means it can supply more current – more electricity – to the motors, to create big power.
The GT’s raw numbers paint a sobering picture.
In overboost mode it can summon 760kW. A new Attack Mode dials that up to 815kW in two-second bursts. That’s almost 1100 horsepower – more than an F1 car.
And it’ll thump out a consistent 1240Nm, comfortably blitzing most supercars.
Sure, a nuggety body quells those kiloWatts.
In Weissach guise as tested here – no rear seats, no electric seat adjustment and a whole lot less sound deadening – the Turbo GT still tips the scales at a very un-supercar-like 2220kg.
Lining up
Still, the power numbers trounce the kilos.
It doesn’t take Oscar Piastri to get a Porsche Taycan off the line with ballistic intent.
The electric hero of the German brand’s lineup is as easy as any car to blast down a drag strip.
Select Sport Plus, left foot on the brake and floor the throttle. Release the brake and your head will soon be mashed back into the head restraint.
In Turbo GT guise it’s the most ferocious of any Porsche. And as we soon learnt, harnessing all 1240Nm can be a challenge, even when it’s channelled through sticky Pirelli P Zero tyres.
This is where we fess up.
Our first run at the drags was on a chilly winter night. And the best the car did was a 9.657-second run at 149.83mph (241.1km/h). That’s quick.
But it fell tantalising short – just 0.17mph – from hitting the 150mph target and being banned.
During the six runs the car never launched as hard as it could. Wheelspin was a constant companion, the traction control working tenaciously to prevent a Pirelli smoke show.
It was a frustrating result. We knew the car could go quicker, but temperatures were against us.
Staying warm
The big issue was tyres. Or, more specifically temperatures. A bit of heat makes them stickier and improves grip.
But there was no way to warm them. A burnout isn’t possible in an all-wheel drive car.
And there’s no racetrack to zip around to get some heat into the tyres.
Besides, unlike a combustion-powered vehicle – in which it’s beneficial to have less fuel in the tank – with an EV you want as much charge as possible.
Blame it on batteries. When a battery loses charge its voltage drops slightly.
How much power an EV makes is determined by its voltage multiplied by its current (measured in amps).
Engineers can counter the voltage drop by increasing the current.
But, equally, many EVs – including the Taycan – will make less power as the battery charge drops.
For this test, Porsche engineers suggested I keep the battery topped way up (above 90 per cent state of charge).
There’s also another temperature to manage here: the battery.
Batteries don’t like being too cold because it slows down the chemical reactions and means ions move slower. I need bazilliions of ions moving very quickly.
Ideally, I want the Taycan’s battery pack above 30 degrees.
With an ambient temperature around four degrees, that creates challenges.
Take two
The first goal of topping 150mph run was so close we decided to try again. Another night, just as chilly.
One decent launch early on night two – when the track was properly prepped and the temperature slightly warmer – and it should easily beat the target.
But, again, the monstrous torque mountain won the traction argument.
After four runs we pulled the pin. It was consistently posting 9.6/9.7-second times.
But it would just as consistently wheelspin off the line. All of which is worth putting in perspective.
Those sub-10-second times are quicker than most supercars can produce, and well into rarefied production car air on a drag strip.
They’re the sort of times that reinforce just how blisteringly fast electric Porsches can be.
But we never hit the goal: 150mph.
Back to the drawing board…
Third time lucky…
It was clear tyre temperatures were key to smashing the goal.
In the middle of winter the only thing I could think of were tyre warmers.
Dozens of phone calls later I found some– thanks to the team at DNA AutoSport Australia! –and we headed to Sydney Dragway for a third time with our purple weapon.
The tyre warmers rugged up the 21-inch Pirellis.
We also worked out a way to generate heat in the battery. Once the battery was charged from an AC charger, we then inputted a local 350kW charger into the sat-nav.
The car immediately started heating the battery to prepare to take the fast charge.
Doing that uses electricity, but as the battery approached 40 degrees we unplugged to then quickly top up that lost amount from the AC charger.
It’s a delicate temperature balance which when timed with the drag run is enough to get the heart thumping – all while stationary.
Then it was off to the start line.
A new record
This time around things were very different.
The tyres were somewhere approaching 40 degrees, the battery temperature was a little less but still in its sweet spot.
And as the drag race Christmas tree hit green, the Turbo GT leapt forward with newfound ferocity.
There was none of the chattering, none of the slip, just a potent forward force I’ve never experienced before.
It’s the sort of mind-bending experience that focuses your attention.
Sure, you’re only driving in a straight line, but there’s plenty going on. Even through a helmet the wind noise quickly turns into an aircraft-like rush.
The digital speedo is cycling through the numbers so fast it’s seemingly struggling to keep up.
I later check the official documentation to get an idea of the acceleration.
The journey to the eighth-mile point – half way down the drag strip – took just 5.855 seconds. And the car was travelling 196.4km/h.
So the blast to 200km/h took about six seconds. An F1 car takes something like five seconds to hit the same target.
Another few seconds and it’s over. The run felt quick. It was.
And we’re banned…
Rolling back around past the start line, I’m stopped by an official from the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA), the body that sanctions competitions at major drag races, including those at Sydney Dragway.
“You’re going too fast,” he says.
“You need a parachute if you’re doing over 150mph”.
Turns out we went well over that, clocking 156.61mph, or 252.04km/h. The elapsed time was 9.083 seconds.
That’s 10km/h faster than the limit for any car on an Aussie drag strip that doesn’t have a parachute.
I’d argue the Taycan has something a lot more effective: 10-piston calipers grabbing 420mm carbon ceramic discs up front.
The car didn’t have the slightest issue slowing down. But I’m not about to argue that.
The only way we can continue on the night is by lifting our right foot on the drag strip to ensure we don’t exceed the speed limit.
Where’s the fun in that? Besides, it’s goal achieved.
For now at least, the Taycan Turbo GT is the fastest production car you can buy, bolt numberplates to, and blast down an Australian drag strip in.